Professional Services

What Is Play Therapy:

Play therapy is a form of counseling that therapeutically engages the power of play in a safe and unthreatening environment and provides an opportunity for the child to communicate and express emotions, feelings, experiences and behaviour and therefore resolves internal conflicts and undesirable behaviour.

Play therapy uses the therapeutic powers of play to help children prevent or resolve internal conflicts and achieve optimal growth and development.

A play therapist facilitates a client playing with toys to determine the cause of the disturbed/ undesirable behaviour or unspoken need.

The play therapist is accepting, non-judgemental, present and engaging.

Children will engage in play behaviour in order to work through their internal conflicts and anxieties without realizing it. In this way, play therapy can be used as an awareness creating mechanism.

From a developmental point of view, play has been determined to be an essential component of healthy child development.

Play therapy uses play to tap into the child's world and manner of communication.

The aim is to establish a trusting relationship with the child whereby the child is able to disclose and explore their emotions freely and without judgment.

How can my child benefit from Play Therapy:

Play therapy can help a child to gain new understanding about his or her problems and to learn new ways of coping with and solving those problems.

Play therapy can help a person to develop new skills and to change behavior patterns.

Play therapy can contribute to improved ability to cope with stress and difficult situations and can increase understanding of self and others.

It can also facilitate existing resilience and resources of strengths therefore becoming a prevention intervention.

Play therapy can often involve talking about and experiencing difficult or painful feelings and experiences. As you begin to face them, you may feel worse in some ways. However, with the help and support of your counsellor, you should gradually start to feel better.

Play therapy can help with:

Trauma

Anxiety/ stress

Aggression

Anger

Grief/ loss

Bullying (Victim and perpetrator)

Discipline concerns

Self-esteem concerns

Social difficulties

Divorce

Sibling rivalry

What Is Counselling:

Counselling is a therapeutic intervention, whereby the client is able to talk about, express and deal with any undesirable thoughts and feelings.

This may include disclosing, exploring and processing difficult emotions, internal conflicts and undesirable life experiences.

The counsellor provides a confidential, safe, accepting and non-judgemental environment.

Through counselling the client is able to gain a sense of insight and self-awareness as well as a deeper understanding of the ways in which they engage with others in their world.

How can my child or I benefit from Counselling:

Counselling aims to help you deal with and overcome issues that are undesirable.

It provides a safe and unthreatening space for you to talk and explore difficult feelings.

The counsellor is there to support you and respect your views.

She will not give advice, but will help you to find your own insight and understanding of your problems.

Counsellors are trained to provide counselling to help you cope better with your life and any issues you have.

Counselling can often involve talking about and experiencing difficult or painful feelings and experiences. As you begin to face them, you may feel worse in some ways. However, with the help and support of your counsellor, you should gradually start to feel better.

Counselling, can help with:

Trauma

Anxiety/ stress

Aggression

Anger

Grief/ loss

Bullying (Victim and perpetrator)

Discipline concerns

Self-esteem concerns

Social difficulties

Divorce

Sibling rivalry

Understand yourself and your problems better

Feel more confident

Develop a better understanding of other people's points of view

Parental Guidance and Support:

Parental guidance and support assists parents in exploring options or alternatives to the family's current ways of functioning within the family system.

This aims to assist as well as support a parent(s) with parenting challenges or difficulties that they may be experiencing.

The key areas of focus in this regard include;

Difficulties in communicating with your child

Difficulties understanding your child and his/her behaviours

Challenges with discipline

Challenges with motivating your child in any area of their life

Managing adjustments to family functioning following divorce, relocation, bereavement, traumatic event or addition of family members.

School Readiness Assessment:

The school readiness assessment instrument covers holistic child development and assesses the various areas of development that are important for children to enter formal schooling.

Areas of development:

Social and emotional development

Physical and gross motor abilities

Fine-motor coordination

Visual perception and integration

Mathematical or numeracy ability

Body awareness and self-knowledge

Language, cognitive thinking and auditory perception

The school readiness assessment, assesses children who are 5 or 6 years old.